GE Turbine Problems Hit Power Generation at 3 Pakistani Plants

Pakistan's Central Power Purchasing Agency's report shows that General Electric's 9HA-Class turbines produced only half of their capacity this August, according to Reuters. Power executives and government officials in the country said the GE turbines had operational issues like long outages and production delays.

GE Turbine Problems:

Bhikki Power Plant, Punjab, Pakistan

The GE turbine problems affected three key plants – Bhikki of Punjab government and Balloki and Haveli Bahadur Shah of the federal government – with a total capacity of 3,600MW that are considered crucial to end load shedding within the ruling PMLN's 5-year term ending middle of 2018.

Consequences For Pakistan:

Pakistan's government is failing to deliver on its promise to end load-shedding this year because of serious issues with GE's 9HA-Class turbine.

"It had terrible consequences because we lost a lot of power which would have come to the grid during the peak summer," Yousuf Naseem Khokhar, a top official in Pakistan's Energy Ministry's power division, told Reuters. "It is now up to General Electric to rise to the challenge and to take care of these issues ... before next summer starts," he said.

Pakistan is recognized as a major growth market for power turbine makers because its booming economy has a well-developed gas infrastructure. General Electric has lost a lot of credibility after its failure to deliver in Pakistan. The country awarded its most recent power contract to Siemens, after bidding by several companies, including GE.

Impact on GE Business:

General Electric claims its 9HA-Class turbines are highly efficient turbines which have secured place in the Guinness World Records of 2016, for the amount of electricity they have produced from natural gas at a power plant in Bouchain, France. The Bouchain plant has had 26 forced outages in the 15 months ending November, according to data published by operator Electricite de France (EDF).

JPMorgan analyst Stephen Tusa has warned GE's Pakistan problems could affect other plants around the world, where GE has already "sold" 30 units. GE dismissed criticism, saying the turbines were merely experiencing setup challenges. But the problem could be another setback in a year of plunging stock and "horrible" third-quarter results for the company whose stock has already suffered a major decline this year.

Summary: 

General Electric 9HA-Class gas turbines are not delivering the power Pakistan was counting on to end unscheduled power outages in the country.  These problems could hurt election prospects for Pakistan's ruling PMLN party if they are not fixed soon and the party fails to keep its promise to end electricity load-shedding.

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PMLN to End Load Shedding 

CPEC to Create 2 Million New Jobs

Pakistan's Booming Economy

Pakistan's Gwadar: The Next Shenzhen?

Pakistan Sees Robust Growth in Auto, Energy and Cement Sectors

Appliance and Vehicle Ownership Rates in Pakistan

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Gated Communities in Pakistan

Gwadar vs Chanahar

Travel and Tourism Boom in Pakistan

Will Pakistan Benefit From LNG Glut Pushing Prices to New Lows?

LNG spot prices hit a new low of $4 per mmBTU as the supply continues to significantly outstrip demand. It's creating opportunities for Pakistan to get access to large supply of cheap fuel for its power generation.

With softening demand from China and 130 million tons per year (mmpta) of additional LNG supply set to reach market over the next five years, gas research firm Wood Mackenzie sees continuing downward pressure on global LNG spot prices.

LNG Price History Source: WSJ

“The entire industry is worried because it is hard to tell when China’s demand will pick up again,” said an LNG strategist at a Malaysian energy company who attended the Wood Mackenzie conference in Singapore, according to Wall Street Journal. “Rising demand from smaller countries such as Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh is not enough to offset the declining demand from north Asia.”

As recently as two years ago, LNG shipped to big North Asian countries like Japan and Korea sold at around $15 to $16 a million British thermal units. This month, the price has already hit $6.65 a million BTUs, down 12% from September, according to research firm Energy Aspects. It expects prices to fall further in Asia next year, to under $6 per million BTUs, as a wave of new gas supply in countries from the U.S. to Angola to Australia comes on line, according to Wall Street Journal.

Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), is saving so much money buying the commodity from the spot market that it’s willing to risk penalties for breaking long-term contracts with Qatar.

This is a great opportunity for Pakistan to take advantage of historically low LNG prices to alleviate its severe load-shedding of gas and electricity.  Recently, Pakistan has launched its first LNG import terminal in Karachi and started receiving shipments from Qatar.  Pakistan has also signed a $2 billion deal with Russians to build a north-south pipeline from Gwadar to Lahore. But the country needs to rapidly build up capacity to handle imports and distribution of significant volumes of LNG needed to resolve its acute long-running energy crisis.

Here's a related video discussion:
http://dai.ly/x3ccasi



Pakistan Local Elections; Indian Hindu... by ViewpointFromOverseas


https://vimeo.com/144586144



Pakistan Local Elections; Indian Hindu Extremism; LNG Pricing; Imran-Reham Split from WBT TV on Vimeo.


https://youtu.be/LZavD-tkReg





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Pakistan Shale Oil and Gas Deposits

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Blackouts and Bailouts in Energy Rich Pakistan

Pakistanis Suffer Load Shedding While IPPs Profits Surge

Ramadan Appeal to Stop Electricity Theft in Peshawar, Pakistan

"Do your fasting, pay zakat (charitable donations) and serve your parents, but do these things by the light of legal electricity." Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO)

Peshawar's electric utility has published full page advertisements in major Peshawar newspapers to appeal to its customers' religiosity in the holy month of Ramadan to stop stealing electricity and pay their bills.

According to news reports, PESCO ads exhort the local power consumers to do the right thing by citing religious edicts as follows: "Clerics have ruled that doing good deeds by the light of stolen electricity is against sharia, so let us stop using stolen electricity and beautify our day of judgement."

A combination of deadbeats and power thieves brazenly flout the law by not paying for electricity they use. Many of them are often politically powerful or connected to political bosses who protect them from the law. Some even shamelessly assert their right to steal electricity and refuse to pay bills. The state-owned power companies' employees are often corrupt and complicit in perpetuating the problem which is hurting the entire country. As a result, Pakistan's power sector and its fuel supply chain have been crippled by years of underinvestment, leaving people to endure blackouts of up to 20 hours a day in scorching summer heat.

The problem is widespread. It may be bigger in Peshawar but it is certainly not limited to any one particular city or province. In Islamabad, the nation's capital, it's fairly common for people living in large luxury homes to bribe corrupt utility officials to cap their monthly bills to just Rs. 1000 ($10) regardless of how much electricity they consume.  It's a key reason for Pakistan's worsening energy crisis. By some estimates, more than 40% of the power generated in Pakistan is not paid for.

It can be argued that the power theft is just one manifestation of the fraying moral fiber that is responsible for much of what is wrong in a country where religious fervor has been on the rise particularly since 1980s. Pakistan has rapidly climbed Transparency International's corruption rankings with more and more Pakistanis wearing religion on their sleeves. Symbols of religiosity like beards and hijabs are far more common in Pakistan now than I ever saw when I was growing up in the country in 1960s and 1970s.  Violence against fellow Muslims has also grown along with increasing religiosity. Huqooq-ul-Ibad have been almost completely ignored as Huqooq-ul-Allah have dominated religious discourse in the country.

KESC (Karachi Electric Supply Corporation), Pakistan's largest city Karachi's privately held utility, has started to reward those who pay and punish those who don't. It's a collective reward and punishment scheme to deal with the problem in Karachi. Areas where there is 80% money recovery see almost zero load shedding, 70% get a couple of hours of power cuts and those with less than 50% endure very long hours of black-outs. This policy has helped KESC reduce power theft from about 40% a few years ago to about 28% now  It has also resulted in about 50% of Karachi being supplied uninterrupted power.

There are many steps the new government can take to reduce power theft and improve revenue collection in the power sector. Here are a few of them:

1. Lead by example. All government ministers, top officials and members of national and provincial legislatures should pay their bills.

2. Implement the KESC's Karachi policy in more cities and towns to show consumers the benefits of paying for electricity by rewarding those who pay and punishing those who don't.

3. Deploy technology such as remotely read automated smart meters (AMR) and pre-paid electric meters (remotely shut-off when accounts run dry) to track consumption accurately and control electricity flow.

4. Appeal to people's deep religiosity to fulfill their obligations of paying for what they use. Encourage mosque leaders such as imams and khatibs to reinforce the message through their daily and weekly sermons.

5. Enforce the law. Cut off power to the delinquent consumers. Use police and paramilitary forces to remove kundas, illegal hooks slung over power lines to steal electricity in broad day light.

There is little hope of fixing the worsening crisis without strong action to improve the finances of the power sector to attract more investment.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Blackouts and Bailouts in Energy Rich Pakistan

Remembering Huqooq-ul-Ibad in Ramadan

Culture of Corruption in Pakistan

Circular Debt and Load Shedding in Pakistan

Twin Shortages of Gas and Electricity

Corruption and Incompetence Hobble Pakistan Power Sector

Pakistanis Suffer Load-shedding While Power Companies' Profits Surge

Pakistan's installed generating capacity is about 20,000 MW. It exceeds current demand of 17,000 MW and actual supply of just 10,000 MW. The capacity utilization is only 50% mainly because the producers do not buy sufficient fuel and choose to operate at only 50% of capacity and still enjoy soaring profits. A third of the installed generating capacity is owned by the independent power producers (IPPs). The current IPP contracts guarantee payments and profits with no requirement for fuel efficiency.

Most private investors have built oil-powered inefficient plants because of their low construction costs and short lead times, and the oil price has skyrocketed since these plants were built in 1990s. The result is 18-20 hours of load shedding across most of Pakistan in the scorching summer heat in spite of the fact the taxpayers have shelled out billions of dollars in subsidies to the power sector since 2008.

According to an AP report, the Pakistan's government has assumed $3.6 billion of the power industry's debt. The government-owned power grid owes another $2.5 billion to private-sector generators, even as the government, according to Finance Ministry figures, spent at least $7.4 billion on electricity subsidies during the 2008-2010 period.

Here's Arif Habib Securities investment analysis of the IPPs sector:

All power companies from Arif Habib Limited research coverage witnessed surprising growth (36-58%) in net profitability. HUBC led the flock with 58% YoY jump in profit after tax, attributable to the growing indexation factors and ROE component. On the other hand, lower payables to fuel supplier and resultantly lower penal interest provided major support to KAPCO, pushing the net profitability up by 36% YoY. As far as Nishat group companies are concerned, rising fuel cost magnified the impact of fuel efficiency, which combined with O and M savings further improved the profitability. However, dividend from KAPCO and NPL disappointed the optimistic investors. Arif Habib Limited believes the dividends to rise in 2HFY13 for these companies, providing investor with greater value at the financial year end.

Source: IMF Pakistan

Pakistani government buys electricity from IPPs at a rate of Rs. 12.50 per KWhr while the consumers pay an average of Rs. 9.00, leaving a short-fall of Rs 3.50 per unit which is subsidized by the taxpayers. It adds up to hundreds of billions of rupees a year. Power subsidy target for FY 2012-13 was set at Rs 185 billion, 60 percent lower than the actual subsidy provided during FY12. The subsidy provided year-to-date (YTD) is Rs 311 billion, already having exceeded the target by 68 percent, according to PakTribune.

A significant part of the problem is the IPP contracts which guaranteed a 12 to 15 per cent annual return (indexed in dollars, not rupees), gave tax breaks and paid interest on private funding – more expensive for the government than providing the funding itself.  In addition, there are no incentives for the private power producers to produce power efficiently.

In a blog post published in Financial Times, Dr. Kamal Munir of Cambridge University's Judge Business School blames the IPP contracts signed as part of the power privatization in 1990s.

“The 1994 privatization of the energy sector offered investors generous returns and created pricey overcapacity,” he told Financial Times. “This created an expensive legacy which is the real problem of today’s energy crisis.” Unless that problem is dealt with, he sees no light at the end of the energy tunnel.

He says Pakistan’s government, helped by the World Bank, “sweetened” its energy privatisation with attractive conditions, fearing it wouldn’t be able to attract investors otherwise. It guaranteed a 12 to 15 per cent annual return (indexed in dollars, not rupees), gave tax breaks and paid interest on private funding – more expensive for the government than providing the funding itself. ”The deal was too good to be true for investors,” Munir says.

Munir says the model turned out to be badly constructed in terms of creating value for the government and people of Pakistan. Even in an environment of economic growth and efficient energy generation, it would have been hard for the government to finance the plan. But since both have been absent, it became nearly impossible to pay for privatised energy.

Since there were no incentives to be fuel-efficient, most private investors chose to build  plants using furnance oil as fuel because of their low construction costs and short lead times. This backfired as the oil price has trebled since the 1990s. Variable costs, and therefore prices to consumers, are at unsustainable levels. “No wonder many consumers can’t afford to pay their bills,” Munir says.

To make things worse, the government neglected to step on the brakes when its generous conditions attracted too many investors. Assuming economic growth would continue, it allowed too much capacity to be built and guaranteed the same return on that extra capacity, whether it was used or not.

Munir says the government should develop new power plants using cheaper fuels, and that this shouldn’t be a problem in a country with an abundance of coal, waterways and sun.

But Pakistan must first escape its vicious payment cycle.

“We need to get out of the the current deals,” says Munir. But at what cost, and does this imply default? “Your guess is as good as mine,” the academic admits.

Still, he felt it was time to make his point. “I’m not defending people who don’t pay bills and I’m not promoting government subsidies to keep prices low,” Munir says. “But why isn’t anyone talking about the policy that led to this situation to begin with?”

Fuel Cost per million BTU

The key to solving the problem is to renegotiate the old IPP contracts with new terms that reward lower fuel costs and higher efficiency. In addition to that, Pakistan's incoming government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's has to explore multiple fuel options to meet the nation's growing energy needs. Some of the fuel options are as follows:

1. Developing its shale gas reserves estimated 51 trillion cubic feet near Karachi in southern Sindh province. The US experience has shown that investment in shale gas can increase production quite rapidly and prices brought down from about $12 per mmBTU in 2008 to under $2 per mmBTU recently. Pursuing this option requires US technical expertise and significant foreign investment on an accelerated schedule.

 2. Increasing production of gas from nearly 30 trillion cubic feet of remaining conventional gas reserves. This, too, requires significant investment on an accelerated schedule.

3. Converting some of the idle power generation capacity from oil and gas to imported coal to make electricity more available and affordable.

4. Utilizing Pakistan's vast coal reserves in Sindh's Thar desert.

5. Hydroelectric and other renewables including wind and solar. Several of these projects are funded and underway but it'll take a while to bring them online to make a difference.

In my view, the newly-elected government should pursue all of the above options with options 1, 2 and 3 as a priority for now. Its best interests will be served by developing its own cheap domestic shale gas on an accelerated schedule with Saudi investment and US tech know-how.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Comprehensive Energy Policy for Pakistan

IPP Contracts in Pakistan

Pakistan Needs Shale Gas Revolution

US Census Bureau's International Stats 

Pakistan's Vast Shale Gas Reserves

US AID Overview of Pakistan's Power Sector

US Can Help Pakistan Overcome Energy Crisis

Abundant and Cheap Coal Electricity

US Dept of Energy Report on Shale Gas

Pakistan's Twin Energy Crises

Pakistan's Electricity Crisis

Pakistan's Gas Pipeline and Distribution Network

Pakistan's Energy Statistics

US Department of Energy Data

Electrification Rates By Country

CO2 Emissions, Birth, Death Rates By Country

China Signs Power Plant Deals in Pakistan

Pakistan Pursues Hydroelectric Projects

Pakistan Energy Industry Overview

Water Scarcity in Pakistan

Energy from Thorium

Comparing US and Pakistani Tax Evasion

Corruption & Incompetence Hobble Pakistan Power Sector

In spite of the injection of government's subsidies of $7.4 billion since 2008, the power crisis in Pakistan continues to worsen, according to credible reports attributed to Pakistan's Ministry of Finance.

The poster child of the waste, fraud and abuse is the Turkish Karkey rental power ship deal which sinks Rs. 780 million or nearly $9 million per month of public funds for providing very little power because of lack of sufficient fuel supply, according to The News.

There were credible reports in 2009 that the ruling PPP politicians, particularly President Zardari and his inner circle, ignored former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin's key recommendations to address the acute power shortages in the country. Zardari's insistence on pushing rental power projects, rather than fix the huge circular debt problem in the energy sector first, specially frustrated the nation's former finance chief, and he eventually quit last year.



What is becoming increasingly clear is that the government's corruption and incompetence in the power sector, not just insufficient installed generating capacity blamed on Musharraf, are at the heart of the deteriorating energy situation in Pakistan.

Nine Independent Power Producers (IPPs), with a combined power generation capacity of 1,800MW, have now notified the government and central power purchasing agency (CPPA) that they are invoking sovereign guarantees for the recovery of their dues amounting to Rs. 31 billion.

The much-heralded reforms of the power sector designed to attract more private investment are stalled, and the current financial mess is scaring away potential investors. With circular debt touching Rs. 250 billion, or nearly 40% of the sector's annual revenue as estimated by ADB, new investors are hesitant to risk their capital. As a result, neither the short-term relief from load shedding nor the long term improvements in the energy sector appear to be on the horizon.

In addition to the long delayed structural reforms in the power sector, there is a total lack of will to tackle the widespread problem of power theft and the mounting unpaid electricity bills which account for as much as 40% of the industry revenue. This deprives the crucial sector of the cash it needs to operate as a sustainable and responsive business capable of satisfying its customers' requirements of reliable electricity service. Rather than deal with these underlying issues, the government is choosing to apply the temporary band-aid of uncertain periodic subsidies and repeated rate hikes.

The recent electricity riots and the approaching elections now appear to be having the effect of adding some sense of urgency at the cabinet level to deal with the long festering crisis. The Cabinet Committee on Restructuring (CCoR) on power sector Thursday approved the creation of a holding company to be led by an independent board of directors to finalize the restructuring of four power generation companies (GENCOs).

This holding company will supervise the management of four GENCOs to be managed in the private sector and would try will make sure of fresh investment in such GENCOs to improve power generation from existing 3,500 megawatts (MW) to 4,800 MW in near future to bridge the demand and supply gap, according to a report in Daily Times.

The paper also reported that the PEPCO (Pakistan Electric Power Co) would be dissolved by October 30, 2011 and replaced by CPPA (Central Power Purchasing Agency) with private management would be its successor. A source said that role of the ministries in power sector would be minimized and private sector would have complete administrative and financial authority under the reform process to improve the system.

It's absolutely essential that highly competent and fully empowered leadership be brought in urgently to lead the power industry from the dire straits it's in today. The political leadership in Islamabad must understand the following very clearly: Without first repairing the power sector, there can be no hope of fixing the economy and spur growth before the next elections.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pakistan's Worsening Power Crisis

Circular Debt and Load Shedding

Musharraf's Economic Legacy

Pakistan's Tops Jobs Growth in South Asia

World Bank Report on Jobs in South Asia

Pakistan's Twin Energy Crises

Pakistan's Worsening Electricity Crisis

Pakistan's Struggling Economy

Lahore School of Economics Paper on Circular Debt

Mismanagement Worsening Pak's Power Crisis

It is becoming increasingly clear that it is the total absence of financial management, not just insufficient installed generating capacity, that is the crux of the worsening energy problems in Pakistan.

Riots have broken out as the Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, finds itself in the midst of the worst ever electricity crisis in the nation's history. The power shortfall has reached almost 9000 megawatts across the country, over half of the total demand of about 17000 MW.

Many public and private power producers have shut down their power plants due to the suspension of fuel supply by Pakistan State Oil, the state-owned oil company, according to a report in the Express Tribune. The oil company is demanding payment of Rs. 155 billion in outstanding dues from the power producers before resuming fuel supply.



The key players in this "circular debt" trap are the federal and provincial governments as the biggest deadbeats, the power distributors like LESCO and KESC, the power producers like Pepco and Hubco, and the fuel suppliers like government-owned Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and partially state-owned Pak-Arab Refinery Ltd (PARCO). This debt circle begins with the government as the biggest debtor and ends with a government-owned entity as the biggest creditor. So the obvious question is: If the government is both the biggest debtor and the biggest creditor, then why is it that the government leaders can not solve the problem? Is it the lack of will? or the lack of competence?

Increased load shedding in Pakistan has cost 400,000 jobs in recent years, according to the World Bank. Although the World Bank report does not address it directly, the anecdotal evidence suggests that almost all of Pakistan's 13 million jobs in the decade of 2000-2010 were created from 2000-2007 when the economy showed robust gdp growth.

Clearly, the circular debt problem has assumed alarming proportions, threatening Pakistan's future. The IMF and the US officials in their recent meetings with Pakistan government have described the circular debt as a significant threat to the country’s economy.

Unless the government urgently takes serious steps to manage and resolve this worsening electricity crisis by putting a fully empowered competent team in charge, it will only get worse and make life impossible for both businesses and consumers, and cause a total collapse of an already struggling national economy.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Circular Debt and Load Shedding

Integrated Energy Plan 2009-2022

Musharraf's Economic Legacy

Pakistan's Tops Jobs Growth in South Asia

World Bank Report on Jobs in South Asia

Pakistan's Twin Energy Crises

Pakistan's Worsening Electricity Crisis

Pakistan's Struggling Economy

Lahore School of Economics Paper on Circular Debt

Pakistan's "Circular Debt" and "Load Shedding"

As Pakistanis discuss major causes and crippling effects of the worst ever power crisis in the nation's history, "load shedding" and "circular debt" are two key phrases that have entered the vocabulary of average people in Pakistan during the last few years.

Load Shedding:

What do these common phrases mean? Let me start with "load shedding" first. Long and daily power outages are called "load shedding". "Load shedding" is supposedly an attempt to share a limited resource equitably among many consumers. In addition to insufficient installed capacity as the culprit, the dramatic increase in "load shedding" in the last two years is commonly also blamed on growing "circular debt" which results in significant under-utilization of power plants already in place. There is credible data to suggest that the deepening electricity crisis since 2008 has more to do with the independent power producers(IPPs) operating at less than 50% of their installed capacity because they can not pay for the fuel they need to produce more. The outgoing finance minister Mr. Shaukat Tarin acknowledged the problem of circular debt, and tried to focus on it. He even threatened to quit last year over the lack of resolution of this problem. However, he was only partially successful in paying down the government debt. He is reportedly taking a parting shot at the problem on his final day in office.

Key Players:

The key players in this "circular debt" trap are the federal and provincial governments as the biggest deadbeats, the power distributors like KESC, the power producers like Pepco and Hubco, and the fuel suppliers like government-owned Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and partially state-owned Pak-Arab Refinery Ltd (PARCO). This debt circle begins with the government as the biggest debtor and ends with a government-owned entity as the biggest creditor. So the obvious question is: If the government is both the biggest debtor and the biggest creditor, then why is it that the government leaders can not solve the problem? Is it the lack of will? or the lack of competence? Is there a personal profit motive of the top leader of the ruling PPP, who is allegedly pushing rental power plants (RPPs) contracts ahead of the speedy resolution of circular debt? Is it a combination of corruption and incompetence? The answer to these questions depends on who you ask.

Circular Debt:

While you ponder possible answers to the question of resolving circular debt, let me share with you an interesting story posted by Naresh Goyal that explains circular debt and how it can be resolved:

It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town... He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel...

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.....

Summary:

Clearly, the circular debt problem has assumed alarming proportions, threatening Pakistan's future. The IMF and the US officials in their recent meetings with Pakistan government have described the circular debt as a significant threat to the country’s economy.

After signing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of rental power plant (RPPs) projects in the face of harsh criticism, the government is finally starting to deal with rising circular debt to address power shortages. Outgoing finance minister Saukat Tarin recently told the News that “in real terms the circular debt has swelled to Rs108 billion which mainly includes non-payment of Rs42 billion by KESC, Rs21 billion by the government of Sindh and Rs15-16 billion from commercial consumers to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco)".Just prior to leaving office, Tarin has decided to raise Rs. 25 billion as a small step toward settling a debt estimated at hundreds of billions of rupees.

Unless Pakistani government deals with the economics of power generation by boldly tackling the issue of growing circular debt quickly, it will be almost impossible to get the IPPs to fully utilize existing installed capacity, much less attract new investments in the power sector.

Here is a recent video clip of former President Muharraf talking about the power crisis in Pakistan:



Related Links:

Tarin's Parting Shot at Circular Debt Problem

Circular Debt: Finance 3.0

Shaukat Tarin Resigns

US Fears Aid Will Feed Graft in Pakistan

Pakistan Swallows IMF's Bitter Medicine

Shaukat Aziz's Economic Legacy

Pakistan's Energy Crisis

Karachi Tops Mumbai in Stock Performance

Pakistan's Electricity Crisis

Pepco Increases Load Shedding By 5 Hours